Reel Toronto: All the Toronto Locations in Drake’s Music Videos

Toronto’s extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn’t always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Drake Week celebrates all things Toronto and Drake in anticipation of the city hype man’s latest album, Views from the 6.

Toronto has long been a major centre for music video shoots and indeed we’ve looked at some vintage classics from the 80s, 90s and 00s. But given Drake’s civic boosterism, it’s not surprising that highlighting his own connection the 6ix has been an ongoing theme of his video ouevre.

Location wise, a couple of videos are gimmes. Rhianna’s “Work” is all the rage right now and it’s rather hard to miss that it’s shot at The Real Jerk at Gerrard and Carlaw…

So, that’s all fine and good but Drake’s real cinematic magnum opus is “Jungle.” It’s positively bursting with Torontoness-past and present.

Let’s start with the past, since we aim both to entertain and to educate. You may wonder what these old timey shots at the start are.

It’s footage from the Great Toronto Fire of 1904. It took place almost exactly 112 years from today and it’s historic not just for its sheer scale but because this is the first known moving film of our fair city.

More history here with this apparently random video of a building imploding. The date and geography let us know this was actually 111 Elizabeth Street biting the dust. Today it’s just a bunch of condos (duh!). But the original building, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, actually had an interesting history connected to the old Chinatown that grew out of the area’s history as part of The Ward.

Getting slightly more contemporary, we have this undated shot of the CN Tower…

Of course, those are all fine and good but Drake’s most famous and awesome video appearance? That was courtside at the ACC.
Correction, 3:25 p.m.: This article initially stated that Director X won the Prism Prize. In fact, we won a Special Achievement Award from the Prism Prize. The Prism Prize will be awarded May 15. Torontoist regrets the error.

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